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Expenditure on physicians' services in Canada: Was Medicare a structural change?
Author(s) -
Ferguson Brian
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
health economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1099-1050
pISSN - 1057-9230
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1050(199609)5:5<409::aid-hec229>3.0.co;2-7
Subject(s) - cointegration , structural equation modeling , structural change , national health insurance , actuarial science , economics , public economics , business , medicine , econometrics , environmental health , macroeconomics , statistics , population , mathematics
This paper uses cointegration analysis to investigate the question of whether the introduction of national health insurance for physicians' services (Medicare) in the late 1960s caused a structural change in the relation driving national expenditure on physicians' services in Canada. The results support the existence of a single cointegration equation applying to both the Medicare and pre‐Medicare periods. Structural change tests do not support the presence of a fundamental structural change associated with the introduction of Medicare.